The present invention relates to an electronic camera and a control method for shooting with the same. Particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic camera which can display a finder image and a control method for shooting with the same.
In an electronic still camera (hereinafter referred to as a digital camera or the like), which is one kind of an electronic camera, when a shooting mode is set, an optical image of a subject is converted to an electric signal by an image pick-up element, image data obtained after image processing such as signal conversion and color process are not only taken in a working memory but simultaneously transferred to a display section and further the data transferred to the display section is subjected to image reconstruction by a video encoder, thereby displaying a through-(finder)-image (dynamic image) on a liquid crystal display.
Thereafter, if a user operates a shutter button in a desired timing (hereinafter referred to as a shutter chance), image data which has been taken in a working memory at a time point of the operation of a shutter button are not only presented on a liquid crystal display as a shot image in a still state, but also recorded in a retention-recording memory after the image data is compressed.
However, in such a process as described above, there are frequent cases for a user to overlook a shutter chance in a shoot mode without conducting a shutter operation and to find that the user has lost the shutter chances by confirming a shot still image after conducting a shutter operation.
As a result, there has been a problem that a user has cases where desired shot images cannot be obtained.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an electronic camera by which a shutter chance can be prevented from being lost and a control method for shooting with the same.
In one of preferred embodiments in order to achieve the above described object, an electronic camera according to the present invention comprises:
image picking-up means for picking up an image of a subject;
display means for displaying the image picked up by the image picking-up means;
first display control means for controlling the display means so as to display the image picked up by the image picking-up means immediately after the image is picked up by the image picking-up means as a present finder image;
second display control means for controlling the display means so as to display the image picked up by the image picking-up means a prescribed time period after the image is picked up as a past finder image;
shoot instructing means for instructing shooting of the subject;
retention-image recording means for recording the image picked up by the image picking-up means as a retention-image; and
record control means for controlling the retention-image recording means so as to record for retention, when shooting is instructed by the shoot instructing means, one of a present finder image and a past finder image according to a display state of the display means at a shoot instruction time point by the shoot instructing means as a shot image,
whereby an electronic camera which can secure a shutter chance is provided.
In another of preferred embodiments in order to achieve the above-described object, an electronic camera according to the present invention comprises:
image picking-up means for sequentially picking up images of a subject;
display means for displaying the image picked up by the image picking-up means;
display control means for controlling the display mean so as to display the image picked up by the image picking-up means immediately after the image is picked up as a present finder image and simultaneously so as to display the image picked up by the image picking-up means a prescribe time period before a present time point as a past finder image;
first shoot instructing means for instructing shooting based on the present finder image;
second shoot instructing means for instructing shooting based on the past finder image;
retention-image recording means for recording for retention the image picked up by the image picking-up means;
first record control means for controlling the retention-image recording means so as to record for retention, when shooting is instructed by the first shoot instructing means, the present finder image of the present finder image and a past finder image presented on the display means at a shoot instruction time point by the first shoot instructing means as a shot image; and
second record control means for controlling the retention-image recording means so as to record for retention, when shooting is instructed by the second shoot instructing means, the past finder image of a present finder image and the past finder image presented on the display means at a shoot instruction time point by the second shoot instructing means as a shot image,
whereby an electronic camera which can secure a shutter chance is provided.